The Rundown: My Kind Of Party

All of this talk about Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four has us rethinking our nickname. Couch potatoes doesn’t quite carry the same bravado.

 #squadgoals,

The Last Night’s Game Team

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World Baseball Classic

• Bringing home the bacon. Team U.S.A. took home its first ever World Baseball Classic championship title, beating Puerto Rico. Since baseball is no longer an Olympic sport, this is the equivalent to taking home the gold medal. Big league.

NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament

• Michigander. The Michigan Wolverines were on a winning streak since their airplane crash a few weeks ago. All good things come to an end. They lost last night to the Oregon Ducks.
• Narrowing it down. The field goes from the Sweet 16 tonight to the Elite Eight starting Saturday. If you want to cheer for the underdogs, Xavier and Gonzaga are playing each other in the Elite Eight on Saturday, and neither team has ever made it to the next round, the Final Four. Somebody has to win, might as well be you.

PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association)

• Family matters. Golfer Jason Day (#3) withdrew from this weekend’s tournament to spend time with his mom who is battling lung cancer. During a tear-filled interview, he talked about how “family comes first.” American doctors have upgraded her prognosis from the grave one she received in their native Australia but it’s still a long road ahead.  

Overtime

• According to Fortune Magazine, when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series last season - breaking their 108-year championship drought, it was nothing short of a modern marvel. The magazine named Cubs’ president of baseball operations, Theo Epstein, this year’s “World’s Greatest Leader.” Epstein, who also ended the Boston Red Sox 86-year losing streak in 2004, beat out the Pope, Melinda Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and a few other underachievers.

Sideline stat

• "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." That’s the athletes motto in the Special Olympics which has been repeated thousands of times at their World Winter Games in Austria. The games come to a close on Saturday but over 2.700 athletes from 107 nations have been brave in their quest for gold. Click here for more about the games.

Coaches’ Corner

• There’s a tradition of doing a “shoey” after a victory in F1 (Formula One) racing. The shoey was introduced by Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo when he drank his victory champagne out of his gross, sweaty shoe after winning a race. Maybe a new pair of Jimmy Choos’ is a better idea? (Missed it? Here’s our five things to know about F1 racing in advance of this weekend’s season opener).